URLSearchParams Serializer

Serializes JavaScript objects to URLSearchParams.

Description

Defines the standard for how the Seam SDKs and other Seam API consumers should serialize objects to URLSearchParams in HTTP GET requests. Serves as a reference implementation for Seam SDKs in other languages.

See this test for the serialization behavior.

Motivation

URL search parameters are strings, however the Seam API will parse parameters as complex types. The Seam SDK must accept the complex types as input and serialize these to search parameters in a way supported by the Seam API.

There is no single standard for this serialization. This module establishes the serialization standard adopted by the Seam API.

Why not use URLSearchParams?

• Passing a raw object to URLSearchParams has unpredictable serialization behavior.

Why not qs?

• Not a zero-dependency module. Has quite a few dependency layers.
• Impractile as a reference implementation. qs enables complex, non-standard parsing and serialization, which makes ensuing SDK parity much harder. Similarly, this puts an unreasonable burden on user's of the HTTP API or those implementing their own client.
• The Seam API must ensure it handles a well defined set of non-string query parameters consistency. Using qs would allow the SDK to send unsupported or incorrectly serialized parameter types to the API resulting in unexpected behavior.

Why not use the default Axios serializer?

• Using the default Axios serializer was the original approach, however it had similar issues to using URLSearchParams and qs as noted above.

Installation

Add this as a dependency to your project using npm with

$ npm install @seamapi/url-search-params-serializer

Usage

Serialize an object to a string

import { serializeUrlSearchParams } from '@seamapi/url-search-params-serializer'

serializeUrlSearchParams({
  name: 'Dax',
  age: 27,
  isAdmin: true,
  tags: ['cars', 'planes'],
}) // => 'age=27&isAdmin=true&name=Dax&tags=cars&tags=planes'

Update an existing URLSearchParams instance

import { updateUrlSearchParams } from '@seamapi/url-search-params-serializer'

const searchParams = new URLSearchParams()

searchParams.set('foo', 'bar')

updateUrlSearchParams(searchParams, {
  name: 'Dax',
  age: 27,
  isAdmin: true,
  tags: ['cars', 'planes'],
})

searchParams.toString() // => 'age=27&foo=bar&isAdmin=true&name=Dax&tags=cars&tags=planes'

Use directly with Axios

import axios from 'axios'
import { serializeUrlSearchParams } from '@seamapi/url-search-params-serializer'

const client = axios.create({
  paramsSerializer: serializeUrlSearchParams,
  baseURL: 'https://example.com',
})

const { data } = await client.get('/search', {
  params: {
    name: 'Dax',
    age: 27,
    isAdmin: true,
    tags: ['cars', 'planes'],
  },
})

Development and Testing

Quickstart

$ git clone https://github.com/seamapi/url-search-params-serializer.git
$ cd url-search-params-serializer
$ nvm install
$ npm install
$ npm run test:watch

Primary development tasks are defined under scripts in package.json and available via npm run. View them with

$ npm run

Source code

The source code is hosted on GitHub. Clone the project with

$ git clone [email protected]:seamapi/url-search-params-serializer.git

Requirements

You will need Node.js with npm and a Node.js debugging client.

Be sure that all commands run under the correct Node version, e.g., if using nvm, install the correct version with

$ nvm install

Set the active version for each shell session with

$ nvm use

Install the development dependencies with

$ npm install

Publishing

Automatic

New versions are released automatically with semantic-release as long as commits follow the Angular Commit Message Conventions.

Manual

Publish a new version by triggering a version workflow_dispatch on GitHub Actions. The version input will be passed as the first argument to npm-version.

This may be done on the web or using the GitHub CLI with

$ gh workflow run version.yml --raw-field version=<version>

GitHub Actions

GitHub Actions should already be configured: this section is for reference only.

The following repository secrets must be set on GitHub Actions:

• NPM_TOKEN: npm token for installing and publishing packages.
• GH_TOKEN: A personal access token for the bot user with packages:write and contents:write permission.
• GIT_USER_NAME: The GitHub bot user's real name.
• GIT_USER_EMAIL: The GitHub bot user's email.
• GPG_PRIVATE_KEY: The GitHub bot user's GPG private key.
• GPG_PASSPHRASE: The GitHub bot user's GPG passphrase.

Contributing

If using squash merge, edit and ensure the commit message follows the Angular Commit Message Conventions specification. Otherwise, each individual commit must follow the Angular Commit Message Conventions specification.

1. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature).
2. Make changes.
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature').
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature).
5. Create a new draft pull request.
6. Ensure all checks pass.
7. Mark your pull request ready for review.
8. Wait for the required approval from the code owners.
9. Merge when ready.

License

This npm package is licensed under the MIT license.

Warranty

This software is provided by the copyright holders and contributors "as is" and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. In no event shall the copyright holder or contributors be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of substitute goods or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this software, even if advised of the possibility of such damage.